It feels good to be back among you all after a brief
absence due to my ill-health; I shall share my experiences of this period in
the forthcoming issues for, this is that time of year, when we celebrate our
Independence Day. This celebration calls for introspection as well as focusing
on our vision for tomorrow and laying a firm foundation today. This was the
spirit in which ‘Independence Day celebrations’ were initiated way back in
January 1930, seventeen years before we achieved our independence. Celebration
of Independence Day symbolizes the victorious end of a struggle of a
civilization against invasion – from within and outside, to stifle the voices
of virtue, of self-respect, of righteousness and rationality; let us not make
this day, yet another day of the year when we enjoy a holiday.
In the initial years of our independence, there was
widespread skepticism as to our chances of survival as a single political
entity – our diversity and lack of homogeneity were viewed upon as major
stumbling blocks. These indeed were stumbling blocks, in addition to poverty
and illiteracy. However, we not only proved the skeptics wrong, we also
attracted commendations for being the largest democracy. What were once viewed
upon as stumbling blocks – huge population and widespread diversity have been
turned to our major assets – India is now a breeding ground for human
resources worldwide. Democracy has percolated to the roots which is evident
from the spread of literacy.
However, introspection is not for self-glorification.
Eminent jurist, Nani A. Palkhivala in his book ‘We, the Nation – the Lost
Decades’ first published in the year 1994 had asserted as follows: "…….India
became equally conscious that self-government is no substitute for good
government". It is more than a decade since then but we still have not
achieved efficient governance – it still languishes in populism and corruption
is eating away the system. We still have starvation deaths, poverty and
illiteracy. The recent spate of suicides by farmers – tragic as it is, speaks
volumes of our lack of vision for the very core sector of our economy –
agriculture.
Challenges ahead of us are numerous – we have opened up our
economy but we have not integrated our agriculture into it, to meet the
challenges consequent to globalization. Our infrastructure is crumbling under
the demands of our mechanized society. We have no concrete measures at hand to
meet the challenges of global warming. Even with terrorism looming large upon
us, we are way behind in effectively securing our properties and human life.
In such a scenario, it becomes pertinent to ask ourselves,
whether or not we are capable of meeting the expectations that we have set for
ourselves in our Constitution. We need to indulge in soul-search and be active
participants rather than be mute spectators or indulge in blame game.
By the time this issue is in your hands, you must process
of conducting audits and finalizing certification to be done under the various
provisions of the Income-tax Act. In this issue, we have tried to cover
practical as well as legal issues pertaining to tax audit under section 44AB.
We sincerely thank Mr. K. Gopal for preparing the design for this issue. Our
sincere thanks to all the authors too, for sparing their valuable time and
sharing their rich knowledge and experience.
We hope this issue will be useful to our members in the
times to come.
V. H. Patil
Editor
